Application computation offloading for mobile edge computing

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer-readable media, are provided for offloading computationally intensive tasks from one computer device to another computer device taking into account, inter alia, energy consumption and latency budgets for both computation and communication. Embodiments may also exploit multiple radio access technologies (RATs) in order to find opportunities to offload computational tasks by taking into account, for example, network/RAT functionalities, processing, offloading coding/encoding mechanisms, and/or differentiating traffic between different RATs. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A computer system to be employed as a mobile edge orchestrator (MEC-O) in a mobile edge computing (MEC) system, the computer system comprising:
 network interface circuitry to communicate with a plurality of mobile edge hosts (MEHs) in the MEC system, wherein individual MEHs of the plurality of MEHs are located at or near a corresponding access node (AN) of a plurality of ANs; and 
 processor circuitry coupled with the network interface circuitry, the processor circuitry to:
 identify network characteristics of the individual ANs; 
 identify MEH parameters of the individual MEHs, wherein the HEM parameters are to indicate available resources of each MEH; 
 identify application requirements of individual application tasks of one or more applications for computational offloading; and 
 select an MEH of the plurality of MEHs for the computational offloading based on the network characteristics, the MEH parameters, and the application requirements, wherein the computational offloading includes transfer of the individual application tasks to the selected MEH for execution. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the network characteristics comprise channel state information of each AN, backhaul state information of each AN, a type of radio access technology (RAT) of each AN, an average data rate of each AN, and an average round trip time (RTT); 
 the MEH parameters comprise a computational capacity of the respective MEHs, currently available computational load of the respective MEHs, a security level of the respective MEHs, and a reuse degree of computational MEH resources of the respective MEHs; and 
 the application requirements comprise a frequency at which the one or more applications tasks are to be offloaded, computational load for executing the individual application tasks, an amount of data to be transferred for the computational offloading, and an amount of data to be obtained from an MEH after execution of the individual application tasks. 
 
     
     
       3. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein at least one AN of the plurality of ANs is associated with a RAT that is different than other RATs of the other ANs of the plurality of ANs. 
     
     
       4. The computer system of  claim 1 , wherein the processor circuitry is to:
 determine, for the individual MEHs, a computation latency, communication latency, a computation energy consumption, and a communication energy consumption based on the network characteristics and the application requirements. 
 
     
     
       5. The computer system of  claim 4 , wherein the processor circuitry is to:
 determine, for the individual MEHs, a latency budget based on the computation latency and the communication latency; and 
 determine, for the individual MEHs, an energy consumption budget based on the computation energy consumption and the communication energy consumption. 
 
     
     
       6. The computer system of  claim 5 , wherein, to select the MEH for the computational offloading, the processor circuitry is to:
 select the MEH according to an offloading configuration, wherein the offloading configuration is to indicate that selection of the MEH is to be based on: 
 a lowest latency budget among the plurality of MEC hosts, 
 a lowest energy consumption budget among the plurality of MEC hosts, 
 a lowest latency budget among a set of the plurality of MEC hosts having an energy consumption budget that is less than an energy consumption threshold, or 
 a lowest energy consumption budget among a set of the plurality of MEC hosts having latency budget that is less than a latency threshold. 
 
     
     
       7. The computer system of  claim 5 , wherein the network interface circuitry is to:
 obtain, over a first reference point, an application offloading request message from a user equipment (UE), wherein the application offloading request message is to request an identity of an MEH on which to offload application tasks; and 
 send, over the first reference point, an application offloading report message to the UE, wherein the application offloading report is to indicate the selected individual MEH. 
 
     
     
       8. The computer system of  claim 7 , wherein the network interface circuitry is to:
 send, in response to receipt of the application offloading request message, MEH parameter request messages to each of the plurality of MEHs over respective second reference points; 
 obtain, over the respective second reference points, MEH parameter response messages from corresponding MEHs of the plurality of MEHs, wherein each second MEH parameter response message is to include MEH parameters of the corresponding MEHs. 
 
     
     
       9. The computer system of  claim 8 , wherein the second reference point comprises an Mm3 interface; and the first reference point comprises an Mx2 interface, an Mm9 interface, or the Mm3 interface. 
     
     
       10. The computer system of  claim 9 , further comprising: virtualization infrastructure including the processor circuitry, the network interface circuitry, and storage circuitry, and wherein the MEC-O is a virtual machine or a virtualized network function operated by the processor circuitry. 
     
     
       11. A user equipment (UE) comprising:
 one or more UE applications to interact with a mobile edge computing (MEC) system comprising a plurality of mobile edge hosts (MEHs); and 
 an application offloader to:
 identify network characteristics of individual access nodes (ANs) of a plurality of ANs, wherein the individual ANs are co-located with a corresponding MEH of the plurality of MEHs; 
 identify MEH parameters of individual MEHs of the plurality of MEHs, wherein the MEH parameters are to indicate available resources of the individuals MEHs; 
 identify application requirements of various application tasks of the one or more UE applications for computational offloading at one of the plurality of MEHs; 
 select an MEH of the plurality of MEHs for computational offloading of the various application tasks based on the network characteristics, the MEH parameters, and the application requirements; and 
 control transfer, during the computational offloading, of the various application tasks to the selected MEH for execution of the various application tasks. 
 
 
     
     
       12. The UE of  claim 11 , wherein:
 the network characteristics comprise channel state information of each AN, backhaul state information of each AN, a type of radio access technology (RAT) of each AN, an average data rate of each AN, and an average round trip time (RTT); 
 the MEH parameters comprise a computational capacity of the respective MEHs, currently available computational load of the respective MEHs, a security level of the respective MEHs, and a reuse degree of computational MEH resources of the respective MEHs; and 
 the application requirements comprise a frequency at which the one or more applications tasks are to be offloaded, computational load for executing the individual application tasks, an amount of data to be transferred for the computational offloading, and an amount of data to be obtained from an MEH after execution of the individual application tasks. 
 
     
     
       13. The UE of  claim 11 , wherein at least one AN of the plurality of ANs is associated with a RAT that is different than other RATs of the other ANs of the plurality of ANs. 
     
     
       14. The UE of  claim 13 , wherein the application offloader is to:
 determine, for each MEH of the plurality of MEHs, a computation latency, communication latency, a computation energy consumption, and a communication energy consumption based on the network characteristics and the application requirements. 
 
     
     
       15. The UE of  claim 14 , wherein the application offloader is to:
 determine, for each MEH of the plurality of MEHs, a latency budget based on the computation latency and the communication latency; and 
 determine, for each MEH of the plurality of MEHs, an energy consumption budget based on the computation energy consumption and the communication energy consumption. 
 
     
     
       16. The UE of  claim 15 , wherein, to select the MEH for computational offloading, the application offloader is to:
 select the MEH according to an offloading configuration, wherein the offloading configuration is to indicate that selection of the MEH is to be based on: 
 a lowest latency budget among the plurality of MEC hosts, 
 a lowest energy consumption budget among the plurality of MEC hosts, 
 a lowest latency budget among a set of the plurality of MEC hosts having an energy consumption budget that is less than an energy consumption threshold, or 
 a lowest energy consumption budget among a set of the plurality of MEC hosts having latency budget that is less than a latency threshold. 
 
     
     
       17. The UE of  claim 15 , wherein the MEC system comprises a mobile edge orchestrator (MEC-O) communicatively coupled with the plurality of MEHs, and wherein the application offloader is to:
 control transmission, over a first reference point to the MEC-O, of an MEH parameter request message, wherein the MEH parameters request message is to indicate MEH identifiers of one or more MEHs of the plurality of MEHs from which to request MEH parameters, 
 wherein the MEC-O is to send parameter request messages to each of the plurality of MEHs over respective second reference points and obtain parameter response messages from corresponding MEHs of the plurality of MEHs over the respective second reference points, wherein each parameter response message is to include MEH parameters of the corresponding MEHs; and 
 control reception, over the first reference point, of a MEH report message from the MEC-O, wherein the MEH report is to include MEH parameters for MEHs of the indicated MEH identifiers. 
 
     
     
       18. The UE of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 application circuitry to operate the one or more UE applications, and the one or more UE applications are to interact with the MEC system via a user application lifecycle management proxy of the MEC system; and 
 baseband circuitry coupled with the application circuitry, wherein the baseband circuitry is to operate the application offloader, and to control radiofrequency (RF) circuitry of the UE to transmit the MEH parameter request message and receive of the MEH report message. 
 
     
     
       19. The UE of  claim 18 , wherein the baseband circuitry is to control measurement of channels provided by the individual ANs to obtain the network characteristics of each AN. 
     
     
       20. The UE of  claim 19 , wherein the second reference point comprises an Mm3 interface; and the first reference point comprises an Mx2 interface, an Mm9 interface, or the Mm3 interface. 
     
     
       21. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) comprising instructions, which when executed by one or more processors of a user equipment (UE), is to cause the UE to:
 identify network characteristics of individual access nodes (ANs) of a plurality of ANs, wherein the individual ANs are co-located with a corresponding mobile edge host (MEH) of a plurality of MEHs in a mobile edge computing (MEC) system, and wherein at least one AN of the plurality of ANs is associated with a radio access technology (RAT) that is different than other RATs of other ANs of the plurality of ANs; 
 identify MEH parameters of individual MEHs of the plurality of MEHs, wherein the MEH parameters are to indicate available resources of the individuals MEHs; 
 identify application requirements of various application tasks of one or more UE applications for computational offloading at one of the plurality of MEHs; 
 select an MEH of the plurality of MEHs for computational offloading of the various application tasks based on the network characteristics, the MEH parameters, and the application requirements; and 
 control transfer, during the computational offloading, of the various application tasks to the selected MEH for execution of the various application tasks. 
 
     
     
       22. The one or more NTCRM of  claim 21 , wherein:
 the network characteristics comprise channel state information of each AN, backhaul state information of each AN, a type of RAT of each AN, an average data rate of each AN, and an average round trip time (RTT); 
 the MEH parameters comprise a computational capacity of the respective MEHs, currently available computational load of the respective MEHs, a security level of the respective MEHs, and a reuse degree of computational MEH resources of the respective MEHs; and 
 the application requirements comprise a frequency at which the one or more applications tasks are to be offloaded, computational load for executing the individual application tasks, an amount of data to be transferred for the computational offloading, and an amount of data to be obtained from an MEH after execution of the individual application tasks. 
 
     
     
       23. The one or more NTCRM of  claim 22 , wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to:
 determine, for each MEH of the plurality of MEHs, a computation latency, communication latency, a computation energy consumption, and a communication energy consumption based on the network characteristics and the application requirements; 
 determine, for each MEH of the plurality of MEHs, a latency budget based on the computation latency and the communication latency; and 
 determine, for each MEH of the plurality of MEHs, an energy consumption budget based on the computation energy consumption and the communication energy consumption. 
 
     
     
       24. The one or more NTCRM of  claim 23 , wherein, to select the MEH for computational offloading, execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to:
 select the MEH according to an offloading configuration, wherein the offloading configuration is to indicate that selection of the MEH is to be based on: 
 a lowest latency budget among the plurality of MEC hosts, 
 a lowest energy consumption budget among the plurality of MEC hosts, 
 a lowest latency budget among a set of the plurality of MEC hosts having an energy consumption budget that is less than an energy consumption threshold, or 
 a lowest energy consumption budget among a set of the plurality of MEC hosts having latency budget that is less than a latency threshold. 
 
     
     
       25. The one or more NTCRM of  claim 24 , wherein the MEC system comprises a mobile edge orchestrator (MEC-O) communicatively coupled with the plurality of MEHs, and wherein execution of the instructions is to cause the UE to:
 control transmission, over a first reference point to the MEC-O, of an MEH parameter request message, wherein the MEH parameters request message is to indicate MEH identifiers of one or more MEHs of the plurality of MEHs from which to request MEH parameters, 
 wherein the MEC-O is to send parameter request messages to each of the plurality of MEHs over respective second reference points and obtain parameter response messages from corresponding MEHs of the plurality of MEHs over the respective second reference points, wherein each parameter response message is to include MEH parameters of the corresponding MEHs; and 
 control receipt, over the first reference point, of a MEH report message from the MEC-O, wherein the MEH report is to include MEH parameters for MEHs of the indicated MEH identifiers.